Waterfowl hunting generally involves the use of some of the folling items: a shotgun, a hunting blind, decoys, a boat, and a duck or goose call. The “call” or “call device” is a mechanical apparatus that the hunter blows into, much like a musical wind instrument, but to simulate a sound made by the waterfowl. Hunters may use decoys to lure the fowl within range and a blind to conceal the hunter. When waterfowl comes into sight, the hunter uses a duck (or goose) call to entice the prey to come within range, whereupon the hunter drops the call and quickly shoots at the birds.
This technique involves various problems. One is that there are many different game waterfowl, and they make many different sounds. The duck call is designed to make one or more sounds that emulate that of the prey. At least two dozen types of ducks live in North America, not including such other water birds as eiders, loons, mergansers, smews, scoters, and teals. To name some, this includes the American Black Duck, American Goldeneye, American Widgeon, Barrows Goldeneye, Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, Black Scoter, Blue Winged Teal, Bufflehead, Canvasback, Cinnamon Teal, Common Eider, Common Goldeneye, Common Merganser, Common Pochard, Common Shelduck, Eastern Spot-billed Duck, Eurasian Wideon, Falcated Duck, Fulvous Whistling-duck, Gadwall, Greater Scaup, Green Winged Teal, Harlequin Duck, Hybrid Ducks, King Eider, Long-tailed Duck, Lesser Scaup, Mallard, Manky Mallard, Mandarin Duck, Mexican Mallard, Mottled Duck, Muscovy Duck and Domestic Muscovy Duck, Northern Shoveler, Pekin Duck, Pintail Duck, Red Breasted Merganser, Redhead, Ring-necked Duck, Ruddy Shelduck, Surf Scoter, Tuffled Duck, West Indian Whistling-Duck, White Winged Scoter, and Wood Duck.
As a result of this wide variety of waterfowl, the hunter needs more than one duck call device at the ready. That is, the hunter often will not have foreknowledge of which specific waterfowl might be flying by or otherwise in the area, and upon seeing the animal will have to select the right duck call device, raise it to his mouth, execute the call, and then, when the prey comes within range, drop the call device very quickly, raise the shotgun, take aim, and fire.
Because of the variety of waterfowl, many different duck or goose call devices (simply known as “calls”) are sold today, and duck hunters typically carry a small assortment on the hunt. Typically the hunter uses a carrying apparatus in the form of a lanyard worn about the neck. See http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/browse/call-lanyards-pouches/_/N-1100100+4294388038/Ne-4294388038?WTz_st=GuidedNav&WTz_stype=GNU. Each duck call device has a connector several inches long, and the connectors attach to different positions along the lanyard or to a central position. It is common for a hunter to have a half dozen duck call devices connected in this way. In addition, other known hunting call holders can include a strap that can be fastened around a user's wrist as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,733,808. A call device can be secured to such holder by an elastic tube or strap and can be activated by a hunter by bringing his head to his wrist (or vice versa).
The call lanyard is prevalent among hunters, but it has several drawbacks. A common problem is that the duck calls hang downward some inches and the connectors become tangled. The connectors need to be long enough for the hunter to grab the call device quickly and raise it to his mouth without having to disconnect the call from the lanyard, which would take extra time. Also, the hunter needs to drop the call quickly when the fowl comes within shooting range, and preferably the call will remain attached to the lanyard instead of falling to the ground, marsh, or other place where the hunter has taken position.
An alternative to the lanyard is called a “Call Bridle” that is made by an entity operating under the name “Down & Dirty Outdoors.” See http://www.downndirtyoutdoors.com/dndcallbridle.aspx. The bridle comprises a small pouch with a connecting strap for connecting around the neck and back. The front of the pouch has several vertically-oriented pockets each sized to hold a duck or goose call device. The pouch is “lightweight water resistant neoprene construction with neck and back strap to keep the calls protected and close to your body (helps prevent freezing also).” These are intended to be worn on the upper chest, and each call may be connected by a cord or the like to the bridle so that the hunter can drop it after calling without worrying that it will fall to the ground, water, etc.
A principal object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus that improves the carrying and usage of duck calls in the field.